The proposal drew immediate fire from within the opposition. Angelo Bonelli, leader of the Greens and Left Alliance (AVS), said Meloni had spent four years sabotaging environmental and climate policies both in the European Union and in Italy, and called the outstretched hand incomprehensible "after the electoral stunt on the car tax by Cetto La Qualunque".

Giuseppe Conte, president of the Five Star Movement, was equally blunt: "Today there are no conditions to work together with those who, the Meloni government, have said they want to do drilling. Back to oil... Now Meloni had better go home and let us work."

Meloni's response to Schlein's five proposals did little to lower the temperature: "I intend to examine them without prejudice. Certainly I don't have the prejudices of the Italian opposition."

Both the M5S and AVS say the priority is building an alternative to the right — but that requires a common programme and a leader. From 2pm tomorrow, M5S members will vote online on the proposals to put to the progressive coalition across twenty thematic areas. Some questions, from the environment to labour, are ready; others, more delicate, are still being refined.

Foreign policy remains among the sharpest divides. Conte, speaking to Dritto e Rovescio, was terse on arming Kyiv: "Weapons to Kiev? The Progressives are not racing to rearm."

Behind the manoeuvring lies the spectre of Beppe Grillo and talk of a new party that could trouble Conte. Il Fatto Quotidiano reported that the project is already under way and moving fast, citing "many young people, AI and contacts with Musk".

Marco Bella, a former M5S deputy close to Grillo, neither confirmed nor denied it on Facebook: "His podcast did not discuss 'founding new parties'," he wrote, but "if Beppe wanted to found a new political force... what would be wrong with that?" He added that it would never be a "left-wing" party, calling those "old categories of the last millennium" — Grillo "goes up high". The one certainty, he said, is that Grillo is "super-determined to take back the name and symbol of the MoVimento".

That legal battle is crucial for the M5S, especially with the next general election in view. In an interview with the Pulp podcast, Grillo already drew blood in the previews: "Today the Movement is something else in the hands of Reverend Jones, the man who whispered to quibbles. The Movement that is progressive only in the paralysis of the progressive mind, they have no idea... we are heading into extraordinary chaos."

Conte hit back: "I have already given," he said. "It is no longer a question that concerns the M5S. Grillo's economic problems are no longer mine. We care about the economic problems of Italians."

The centre-left's primary puzzle is far from resolved and is also gripping the PD internally. A hypothesis circulated and was immediately denied of a possible second round that would let Giorgio Gori run alongside Schlein to attract reformist votes. "When this work on the programme is finished, if the primaries are the coalition's choice, the Democratic Party will have, as is normal, a single candidate," said Senate group leader Francesco Boccia, one of the dems closest to Schlein. Matteo Renzi commented that Gori "is a reformist in his soul, but I don't discuss things in other people's houses".

The centre is also on the move. Ernesto Maria Ruffini announced that Più Uno will be transformed into a new political entity at an event in Rome on 10 October. "It is not simply a matter of adding another party to those that already exist," he said. "We want to give complete form to the work begun with Più Uno around the country's priorities and the challenges it faces."